By Amanda Marshall/reporter

Open a Door to History came to life March 24 during the SE Reading Festival with an assortment of books about U.S. and world history.

SE library services director Jo Klemm dressed as Martha Washington, and several volunteers handed out R.E.A.D. posters of TCC mascot Toro as he autographed them for children.

“Although it was a smaller turnout this year, we still had lots of volunteers, over 100 TCC students and faculty members,” Klemm said.

Miss Texas 2011 Kendall Morris visited and brought bookmarks with her picture on them, sat on the floor along with the other volunteers and read to the children. She also spoke to them about the importance of reading and setting goals.

TCC board president Bill Greenhill and SE president William Coppola also attended and read books to the children. NE library director Mark Dolive attended wearing a Civil War outfit. He spoke to the children about reading and learning about the Civil War.

Ernie Horn, executive director of Score A Goal in the Classroom, asked the students if they had ever been on a college campus before attending the festival. Most of the students said they hadn’t. He spoke about the importance of reading and the fundamentals of the Score A Goal in the Classroom organization, which created a program to help local teachers provide their students with incentives and prizes to earn after achieving educational goals.